A communication network may comprise, for example, a number of remote satellite communication terminals (or "remotes") that communicate either with a hub (or "master") terminal or with one of the other remotes through the master. The outbound frequencies from the master are broadcast, while the inbound frequencies are shared using any of a variety of access methods. Some of these access methods include: TDMA, contention (slotted aloha), demand-assigned and others.
Each of the remotes can provide access to the network for a number of co-services through the remote's RF equipment. Some of these co-services include: Data (interactive, LANs, computer-computer, etc.); digital voice (switched, unswitched); SCADA (unswitched); digital video (switched, unswitched); and others. A problem with such an arrangement is due to the requirement of supporting different types of co-services. Some of these co-services are characterized as "bursty" traffic, and include LANs, file transfers, demand voice and others. This bursty traffic significantly exceeds the average bandwidth requirement for the community of remotes that share the inbound and/or the outbound frequencies. Interactive response time could suffer, or one type of service might dominate others with respect to traffic engineering.
There is thus a need for a network in which remotes are allocated bandwidth on demand in an efficient manner, and in which this bandwidth is reallocated among the remotes when it is no longer demanded by a specific remote or remotes. There is also a need for a network in which the community of sites reliably are made aware of and abide by the allocations.